No correspondents will be entered into

When I'm not whingeing that I have too much correspondence to manage, I'm bellyaching that nobody emails me any more. But I do get some beauts, like this one from Vladimir yesterday:

"I've been reading your website trying to find an answer. I hope you can help me.

"As you know after The Imperio Inca( TAHUANTINSUYO) was divided in two. Cuzco which was the capital and HAUSCAR the chief(PERU) The Kingdom of Quito which Atahualpa was King (ECUADOR) I have clear that Huascar was born in CUZCO, but there is nothing clear that Atahualpa was born in Cuzco as well, although they are half brothers. Where was he born? Do you think he was born on North of the Inca Imperio actual Ecuador. If you think he was born in Cuzco actual Peru, would you mind to give me facts. The only fact I have is that PACCHA Queen of The KINGDOM OF QUITO was Atahualpa's mother. Please I'll really appreciate your help."

Nothing can stroke one's ego like having people think you know hard things. And nothing can make you hard like having your ego stroked. I know less than nothing about Incan history, but if you know whether Ecuador can claim the great Atahualpa as its son, you can tell Vladimir through me.

Ledj of Didj
I'm also a sucker for anything that groans and whines (except for George Bush, Alexander Downer and other people's children), especially bagpipes and didgeridoos, and especially when they're used in rock music , which they have been sometimes in Aussie rock.

So I surfed up last night to the website of the world's most acclaimed didgeridoo maestro, Charlie McMahon (http://www.charliemcmahon.com), formerly with Gondwanaland and now playing with Gondwana. I sent off a quick email to the Living Ledj of Didj thanking him for making some sample mp3s available on his site, and to my surprise he shot this reply back to your almanackist.

"The almanac you do has the kind of content that interests me, good stuff, thanks. Anyway my attitude to [music file sharing] is that as copying gets easier so copyright declines and rather than pissin in the wind the best tack is to get copied a lot to get better known and have a higher profile for live stuff ... some Deutsch fans have made a site about my seismis audio www.face-bass.com"

Just when I was starting to really get the shits with the Net I appreciate it all over again for the many cool opportunities and networking it opens up even to destitute shmendricks like yours truly. And I think Charlie's got the right attitude about snagging mp3s off the Net. Some cultures aren't as mercenarily hung up on copyright and even plagiarism issues as ours, and use of one's material is seen as tribute rather than theft. Having said that, if you pinch anything from the Almanac, it's not tribute, it's bloody robbery, got it?

Charlie sounds like a good bloke. Make sure he plays your town.